


Lionheart: Brakes

by moonmelonn



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Crying Keith (Voltron), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), I wrote this four days ago but I've been too nervous to publish it, Nightmares, Other, Platonic Cuddling, Sleepovers, Voltron: Lionheart, anyways my first published fic babey! hell yeah!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 11:33:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15193883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonmelonn/pseuds/moonmelonn
Summary: It's two weeks before junior year of high school starts, so Hunk decides to hold a sleepover. Lance, Pidge, and Keith are all invited.The sleepover itself goes great, up until Lance gets woken at 4am by a muffled voice in the hallway.Turns out, Keith hadn’t had a great time on his way over to Hunk’s house.





	Lionheart: Brakes

**Author's Note:**

> first published story taking place in my voltron high school au, Voltron: Lionheart! there are more details in the end notes <33

_ "Please pick up..." _

Lance opened his eyes to a faint murmur disturbing the silence of Hunk's unlit room. Shadows stretched across the floor and walls, and the clock blinked steadily across the room – 3:52 am. He glanced around, trying to figure out where it came from.

_ "Come on, pick up your phone..." _

The hallway. Lance still couldn't tell who was talking, but whoever was talking sounded shaken up. The murmuring took a minute to pick up again, growing sharper as Lance listened in.

_ "Takashi, pick up your fucking phone..." _

Keith.

Lance sat up, scrambling a bit to free himself from the blankets without waking up either of his friends.

It took a couple minutes for him to extricate himself, but once he was free, Lance bee–lined to the door.

A choked sob made the Cuban boy freeze in his tracks, hand on the doorknob. A beat later, Keith inhaled with a wheezy, strangled whimper.

The noise, a callback to nights spent watching easily–upset nieces and nephews, sent Lance into action. The door opened with a creak, revealing Keith slumped against the wall, near the far end of the corridor. His cell phone sat midway down the hallway as if he’d been pacing the hall when he gave up on trying to call Shiro.

"Keith?"

The boy in question jolted at the sound of his name, flinging his head up to stare at Lance. He looked like a wreck, eyes red and puffy and face drained of any color.

"Lance?"

Lance felt his heart chip a little bit, horrified by the other’s state. He took some steps forward, raising his hands and keeping a steady pace as he spoke. "Keith, are you–"

“Go away.”

"Wha–"

"Go away, Lance."

“What, no–”

"Go back to bed. I’m fine."

"Keith, buddy, you are so obviously not fine right now–"

“Lance–”

“–like, to the point where I’m actually concerned.”

"Lance, I’m fine."

"Okay, no, something is obviously wrong– Keith I swear if you give me that 'I'm fine' shit one more time, you are so obviously lying. If you were fine you wouldn't be crying in the hallway and trying to call Shiro."

Not the right thing to say. Keith's breath caught audibly, a choked gasp followed by a strangled sob of an exhale. "You heard that?"

"Woke me up, yeah. Only heard the last like, minute though before you apparently gave up."

"Shit."

"It's whatever.”

Keith looked to the floor for a moment, not replying.

“So are you ever planning to explain why you're crying at four in the morning?"

"Lance, seriously, just go to bed. I'll… be back in a minute."

"Wh– No! Keith. Keith, it's four in the morning and something has obviously gone wrong. Just tell me, would you?"

"Leave me alone!"

His voice came out sharper then, a snarl compared to the previous whispering. That was followed by a shaky exhale as Keith descended into sobs.

Lance gave up on the slow approach, speed-walking to end of the hall and dropping into a crouch beside his friend. Thick, heavy silence hung between the boys for minutes, only broken by Keith’s heaving breaths. It didn't seem like he was going to say anything soon – at one point he curled up into the fetal position, sobbing into his knees.

After some time though, his crying slowed down. Lance took that as an opportunity to gently, tentatively brush a hand over Keith’s shoulder.

"Keith. Buddy. Talk to me, it seems like something is seriously wrong right now. I want to help."

"I told you, it's fucking _stupid_. Just go away."

Lance responded to the request by sitting beside him, close enough for their shoulders to touch.

"Look man, I'm going to sit here for as long as it takes for something to happen. Either I pass out, you  pass out, or you try to explain whatever's got your mullet in a twist."

"Look, I…” Keith curled a little bit tighter, his voice dropping. “...I had a nightmare."

Of all the responses Lance expected, the admission certainly wasn't one of them.

"A nightmare?"

"I told you. It’s dumb. I’m 17, I shouldn’t be freaking out over such stupid shit, I get–"

"That's not what I'm saying at all, what the hell?! I don’t think the fact that you had a nightmare is dumb or something, I'm _worried_! What happened, what's wrong? Do you want me to wake up Pidge or someone?"

"Don’t wake up Katie, I bother her enough with this type of shit.”

“Putting aside how you’re obviously wrong saying that, do you want me to call Shiro or Acxa then?”

“I already tried calling Shiro, remember? It's nothing anyways.”

"Keith..."

“...I don't wanna talk about it." This sentence held a note of finality – it seemed like he was mentally shutting down. It was a worrying concept, seeing the boy so quiet.

“...Alright. Uh, let me know if you do, okay? I’m gonna just… hang out over here for a couple minutes.”

Keith sat curled up for a couple more minutes, letting the boy’s words hang in the air. Then, slowly, he shifted to lean against the other. Lance hesitantly wrapped an arm around his shoulders. 

And suddenly Keith was bawling into his shoulder, trembling all over and gasping for breath. 

Lance moved on autopilot, pulling him into a hug and holding him tight. He ran a hand through the shaking boy's hair, murmuring softly in an attempt to calm him down.  "Hey, hey–hey–hey, it's alright. You're okay, c'mon. Everything’s okay, buddy, you’re okay."

Keith just cried even harder, wrapping his arms around Lance’s waist as his whole body quaked. 

They weren't positive how much time passed while things suddenly fell apart. Eventually, though, Keith's breathing steadied and his tears dried up.

Silence hung in the air for awhile, Lance running his hands through Keith's hair as they both just inhaled and exhaled, heartbeats slowing. Eventually, Lance began to pull away, detangling himself to let Keith get up. He stopped abruptly when Keith tightened his grip with a shallow breath.

"So, are you gonna demand to know why I'm suddenly losing my mind, or what?"

"Wow, I spend who knows how long cuddling your sorry ass and you're expecting me to interrogate you? I'm offended by your lack of faith, Mullet, truly offended."

"Fuck off."

"...Hey, but for real, you know if you want to talk about it or something, I'm all ears, right?"

Keith pulled back and shifted to lean on the wall again, Lance letting his arms fall away. Neither of them moved Keith's head from Lance's shoulder, though. Neither of them figured they should mention it.

"You know how Shiro… the story behind the whole arm situation, right?"

"I... No, actually. Is that what got you all worked up?"

"Oh. I thought you knew.”

“Keith?”

“Yeah, I guess it was."

Keith shifted a little bit, pushing the side of his face a bit more into the shoulder.

"So, we were... A car wreck happened, a couple years ago. Shiro lost his arm in it." Keith inhaled for a moment. "Dad was... Dad was in the wreck too."

Lance felt more tears soaking into his shirt.

"It's... Yeah. Now you know."

"Keith..."

"And, um. I decided to walk here because Kashi lives pretty close, right? And. Some car just ran a stop sign and it went... The dream, I walked before I actually did and it- it-"  

Keith’s voice caught in his throat, and both of them were lost for words. Lance pulled Keith in again for a hug, and didn’t speak this time as Keith sniffled into his shirt. Neither of them said anything when Lance pressed his face against the top of Keith’s head, either.

After a few minutes, they separated. Lance ran a hand through the other's hair, cupping the side of Keith’s face before pulling his hand away.

"So... you wanna head back to bed?" Lance shifted, sitting up a bit more and keeping an eye on his friend.

"Aren't the others asleep?"

"It's fine. C'mon, you can join the cuddle pile we had going instead of lone-wolfing over in your corner this time."

"... I'll be there in a couple minutes."

“You alright?”

“I just… don’t wanna wake them up. I’ll be there soon though.”

“Promise you aren’t gonna just sit out here and mope?”

“Sure, whatever.”

“Say it…”

“I promise, fine, I’ll join you in a few minutes. Once I know I’m not gonna be the one causing any more issues.”

“ _Brillante_. See you in a few, then.”

Lance glanced one last time at Keith before getting up and walking down the hall, figuring that arguing over Keith’s ‘causing issues’ would prove fruitless. He pushed open the beddoor and padded inside to find both his friends wide awake.

"So, how's the hallway party?"

Katie somehow managed to sound annoyed, confused, exhausted, and concerned all at once. Impressive how she could convey all that while half–buried in a pile of comforters. Lance dropped down next to her, narrowly missing her head while lying down.

"The what?"

Hunk smiled a little bit. "You aren't very subtle. Also, the walls are thin. And Katie says she has BFS."

Lance blinked. Hunk shrugged. “Yeah, didn’t make sense to me when she said it.”

"Geez, I knew you were dumb but I didn’t realize you were that dumb! It’s Best Friend Sense. God."

The trio laughed for a couple seconds, before Katie cocked her head and raised her voice somewhat. "Hey, speaking of my best friend, is he deigning to join us or has he decided to meld with the wall?"

The door creaked as it opened.

"You really know how to make my dramatic entrances work, huh Pidge?"

A tearstained Keith shuffled into the room with a tired, faint smile on his face. He made his way to where the others were seated and paused, awkward and unsure.

Hunk blinked, tilting his head towards Keith. “Are you gonna join us, or…”

“I.. Maybe. I don’t wanna... Intrude or anything though. I– Everything’s– I mean you guys seem–”

Lance stood up, reaching out and grabbing onto Keith’s elbow to cut off his stammering babble. “C’mon, Mullet, don’t act like you don’t love this as much as everyone else does. Everyone loves the patent-pending Garrison Trio Cuddle Pile.”

Keith let himself be pulled down, ending up sandwiched between Lance and Katie.

Nobody said anything for awhile. Hunk and Katie shut off their phones and the group sat in long, comfortable silence.

The silence continued even when Keith rolled into Lance and pushed his face into his shoulder, hiding away. Nobody said anything when Katie stretched her arms around the two boys, clinging to Keith like a koala. Nobody said anything when Hunk joined them, pulling himself close to the group and putting an arm around them.

Nobody said anything for the rest of the night, not when Keith fell asleep before everyone else or when Katie’s phone buzzed in rapid succession with unread texts. They could deal with it in the morning, after all.

For now though, they were all tired and in the mood for some sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATE 2/18/19: i've taken a long break from fic writing; voltron s8 and all that shit crushed me for awhile.  
> i'm getting back into the swing of writing though, and should have new content uploaded by the beginning of march.  
> i don't think it'll be lionheart stuff, but i am working more on that lately.  
> what i'll probably end up uploading is she-ra content; i've had ideas rattling in my head for awhile and i'm excited to put them on paper.
> 
> follow me on tumblr [(moonmelonn)](http://galpalromelle.tumblr.com) for updates on my fics and such. 
> 
> <3 moonie out


End file.
